Lamia Bousnina Gallery shines spotlight on Tunisia’s craftmanship

DUBAI: Inside the remnants of Carthage, a great city founded by the Phoenicians during the ninth century B.C. — near to Tunisia’s capital, Tunis — are several delicately placed objects of contemporary design. Their newly made finishing is in stark, yet complementary, contrast to the ancient ruins.

Vibrantly-colored wool kilims created by American Medellin-based designer Chris Wolston and Tunisian Le Kef artisans are placed graciously over the remnants of old Roman columns.

In addition, there are the curved lines of handsome new furniture pieces made from palm wood by Studio Manda, a firm of Lebanese designer Georges Mohasseb, produced by Tunisian artisan Kais Gharbya. These can be found nearby, also stationed amid the ruins and sculptures from antiquity.

These works are part of the inaugural show “Carthagisme,” curated by Milan-based curator Nicolas Bellvance-Lecompte for Lamia Bousnina Gallery.

This is a space that opened at the end of May in downtown Tunis and is dedicated to showcasing art and design with a focus on championing the country’s craftsmanship.

“In a country where tradition intertwines with constant Mediterranean cultural influences, the exhibition celebrates Tunisia’s artistic heritage while embracing the dynamism of contemporary creative expression,” stated Bellvance-Lecompte in his curatorial statement.

“We want to celebrate our Tunisian heritage,” Lamia Bousnina Ben Ayed, founder of the eponymous space, told Arab News. “Design is now becoming more important in Tunisia. We want to champion design objects made in Tunisia. I’ve always wanted to create bridges and connections with designers from all over the world.”

The exhibition, which runs until Sept. 29, presents specially commissioned pieces by six international designers.

They include Elias and Yousef Anastas from Palestine, French multidisciplinary designer Louis Barthelemy, Beirut-based Mary-Lynn Massoud and Georges Mohasseb, also from Beirut, and American Wolston, presently based in Medellin, Colombia.

The works have been placed temporarily amid the ruins of Carthage for a preview of the exhibition and will later be moved to the gallery — a sleek new white-walled venue with high ceilings in the center of town.

To create each project, the designers were paired with local Tunisian artisans.

Tunisia has long been home to a vibrant community of artisans. According to data from the Oxford Business Group, the country has around 350,000 artisans, mostly women, working largely in marginalized communities where they contribute to the local economy.

These new pieces, served to uphold Tunisian artisanship, form a dialogue with the local industry to create new breathtaking works of contemporary design and is aimed at jumpstarting a microeconomy in Tunisia.

“The group exhibition is a manifesto celebrating Tunisian culture, revitalizing and reinterpreting traditional craft practices through a series of unique collaborative commissions,” Bellvance-Lecompte said.

Mohasseb joined hands with Gharbya to produce furniture from palm wood — a material notoriously difficult to work with due to its irregular fibers and tough texture.

“The entire process was very exciting,” said Mohasseb who works regularly with wood but had not done so previously with palm.

Gharbya, said Mohasseb, is located eight hours away from Tunis in the southwest region of Tunisia where the biggest palms grow. “It was a challenge for all of us, but we were up for it.”

He added: “While the pieces are very simple in form, they are challenging to make in terms of connection and assembly. (The artisans) wanted to learn and explore and they were open to the idea of doing something different from what they had been doing for ages.”

The resulting pieces — a bookshelf, long bench, table and chairs — came together said Mohasseb in a “genuine and humble way.”

Palestinian brothers Elias and Yousef created a series of stone tables whose irregular anamorphous shapes were created from computer modelling.

The pieces, which feature irregular-shaped pieces joined together without any glue or cement, are an extension of their “Stone Matters” project, which explores the predominance of stone in Palestinian architecture. The resulting tables on view at the gallery were made with local Tunisian artisan MDO.

Beirut-based Lebanese designer Massoud worked with local Tunisian ceramist Ali Kadher to create ceramic pieces titled “Primordial Echoes” that honor and uphold traditions from the Gafsa region of Tunisia.

The aim was to create variously rendered ceramic floor and table lamps and side tables that echo the color and texture of Mohasseb’s palm wood pieces. Of note are how her works incorporate references to Tunisian tribal ceramics.

Wolston, on the other hand, created 10 alluring colorfully-hued kilims featuring a variety of geometric patterns. To produce each one, Wolston worked with 10 weavers from the Le Kef region in northwestern Tunisia who based their design on drawings he had created.

Also created in various textiles is “Hannon and the Mediterranean Mirage,” a tapestry by French designer Louis Barthelemy made with Tunisian Nejib Bel Haj that powerfully unites Tunisian ancient history with the present-day stories from the Mediterranean.

The vibrantly hued tapestry features a mix of figural and abstract depictions, including the portrayal of sixth century B.C.E. Carthaginian explorer Hannon.

It references his travels around the Mediterranean as well as the bright orange lifejackets reflecting the hardship of North African migrants crossing the Mediterranean in the hopes of a new life.

The tapestry, like the works specially created around the theme of “Carthagisme,” poignantly unites tradition, ancient history and the present within the context of Tunisian heritage.